It was in Somalia, an African country the size of Texas where warlords were using food as a weapon, that Sgt. 1st Class Randall Shughart was called on to apply the “Army creed.”

“Always place the mission first; never accept defeat; never surrender; never leave a fallen comrade,” is the creed that Shughart personified, said Col. Rand Binford, professor at the U.S. Army War College, at a ceremony dedicating a memorial to Shughart in Westminster Cemetery outside Carlisle.

About 350 service members, veterans, friends and family members gathered to remember Shughart’s sacrifice on the 20th anniversary of his death in Mogadishu on Oct. 3, 1993. His heroic actions were the subject of the film "Black Hawk Down."

View full sizeSgt. 1st Class Randall Shughart of Newville was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions defending the wounded crew of a downed helicopter in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Oct. 3, 1993.

His brother, Michael Shughart of Newville was surprised at the turnout and pleased to see the larger, more identifiable memorial.

“People come from all over the country looking for his grave and couldn’t find it,” Shughart said. Still, he noted, “There are hundreds of people who did the identical same thing who have never been recognized.”

“It’s very, very emotional,” said Shughart’s cousin Shirley Young of Carlisle. She’s kept Randall Shughart’s memory alive with a special place in her home. “I have a wall with his hats,” Young said. “He stepped out with his faith and took a risk.”

She also passes along stories of his heroism to her grandsons as they become old enough to understand. One of them, Bradley Minich, 13, has read “Seal Team 6,” which includes sections about Somalia.

Shughart, who grew up on a Newville-area farm, graduated from Big Spring High School and Cumberland-Perry Vocational Technical School. He was 35 when he was one of 18 American soldiers killed in a firefight with forces loyal to a Somali warlord and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions.

At his funeral Oct. 18, 1993, Shughart was remembered by friends as a down-home guy with simple pleasures and serious convictions. Friends recalled their days as a group of farm boys who spent time hunting, playing football in cow pastures or camping.

Randall Shughart’s father, Herbert Shughart, was at Fort Bragg, N.C., for a ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary with his daughters and Stephanie Shughart, Randall’s widow, who lives in that area.

Michael Shughart noted that his brother has been honored in numerous ways over the years, such as having a ship named after him, a training facility at Fort Polk, La., a post office in Newville, streets and trees, and a West Pennsboro Twp. park memorial. “This has been going on and on for 20 years. It’s amazing,” he said.

Randall Shughart’s cousin Arlene Jennings of Carlisle recalled his death as “pretty traumatic” in their family 20 years ago. “The military meant a lot to him. It was his life,” she said.

The new memorial is a special honor, Jennings said, “because this is where he really is. This is very special.”

“He tried to do some good over there in Somalia. He did what he was asked to do,” said his aunt, Phyllis Rynard of Carlisle.

Funds have been raised to cover the cost of the monument, said Tom Kelley, president of the Randall Shughart Chapter 64 of the Special Forces Association, based at the Gobin Guard Armory in Carlisle. Nearly $10,000 has been contributed, with some donations not counted, Kelley said.

Funds can be donated to the organization to support the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which pays college costs for children of slain soldiers and Junior ROTC programs in Cumberland County and a similar program for younger students.

Kelley said the large turnout at the dedication “shows how patriotic small communities can be. This is small-town America.”

The ceremony included a helicopter flyover, laying of wreaths, taps and firing of three volleys, blessing and speakers from the Army War College and U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center. Members of the Patriot Guard, a motorcycle group, stood at attention holding a row of American flags throughout the ceremony.

The new memorial includes a granite plaque on which the citation for Shughart's Medal of Honor is inscribed and a bench with a quote from his widow: “It takes a remarkable person to not just read a creed, or memorize a creed, but to live a creed.”

Col. Matthew Dawson, director of the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, set the stage for why the U.S. got involved in Somalia 20 years ago. The nation is on the Horn of Africa at the southern edge of the region leading to the Suez Canal, and ships were being hijacked. After warlords killed more than 300,000 people, many through starvation and disease, the U.N. in 1992 authorized humanitarian relief.

“Symptoms got better but the underlying cause remained,” Dawson said. That led to the need for a U.N. peacekeeping force and eventually led to military action to bring a warlord to justice."

Shughart was helping to protect one of two helicopter crash sites, recovering the dead and rescuing the wounded when he was killed.

Maj. Anthony Cucolo, commandant of the U.S. Army War College, said the new stone memorial is one of the symbols of heroism “originated from bonds between soldiers,” which he called a key element in the American fighting spirit that must be kept alive in every generation.

Twenty years ago in Mogadishu, two helicopters were
shot down the same day, and Shughart, a sniper team
member with the Army Special Operations Command, volunteered with his team
leader to be dropped near one of the crash sites. They fought their way to the
site to reach the critically injured helicopter crew members, then tried to
protect the injured crew from an undetermined number of attackers.

Shughart and Master Sgt.
Gary Gordon of Lincoln, Maine, were killed that day but saved the life of Black
Hawk helicopter pilot Michael Durant.

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